Focus: NZME CEO Michael Boggs shares the news from the 2019 financial results plus the future prospects to acquire Stuff.
The New Zealand Herald, its magazines, the Herald on Sunday and the Bay of Plenty Times have all increased readership in the past 12 months, highlighting Kiwis' love affair with print.
The NZ Herald is up to 455,000 readers a day – 2000 more than a year ago – while overall weekly brand audience is at 1.632 million, according to Nielsen data released today.
All of the NZ Herald magazines have enjoyed year-on-year growth.
The Herald on Sunday continues to be the standout Sunday paper of choice for New Zealanders with a 4 per cent growth in readership - 325,000 New Zealanders read the paper each weekend, up 12,000 readers on 2018.
In the magazine stable, Tuesday's Travel magazine leads the charge with 371,000 readers – up a staggering 87,000 readers (31 per cent) year-on-year.
Canvas (339,000, up 39,000 readers), TimeOut (302,000, up 35,000), Viva 231,000 (up 8000) and Sunday Travel 218,000 (up 14,000) have all enjoyed annual increases.
"New Zealanders are hungry for quality, trusted journalism, and our newspapers and magazines are providing this every day," says NZME managing editor Shayne Currie.
"Our readers are hugely engaged and spending many hours luxuriating in the news and feature reads."
A study of readership levels over a five-year period highlights the ongoing strength of print media.
"While much has been made of the fragmentation in the media industry with the ever-increasing number of places for Kiwis to go for news and entertainment, print has remained strong. The NZ Herald has more readers today than it did five years ago," says NZME CEO Michael Boggs.
"It all comes down to trust. We've continued to invest in quality journalism and storytelling and our readers reward us with their loyalty. In an age where it can be difficult at times to know where news is coming from, readers of the New Zealand Herald know exactly where we are," says Boggs.
NZME's stable of regional newspapers have also huge engagement – along with the NZ Herald, the five newspapers reach 1.013 million Kiwis each day.
NZME chief executive Michael Boggs said Herald quality was being met with reader loyalty. Photo / File
The Bay of Plenty Times has gained 3000 readers year on year and is also up 2,000 readers versus the previous period. Its readership is now 29,000. Whanganui Chronicle has gained readers year on year. It now has a readership of 18,000, up 3000 year on year.
This week NZME also revealed that more than 46,000 New Zealanders are nzherald.co.nz subscribers.
And yesterday, the New Zealand Herald released a new App, with more personalised features and a stronger design.
"So many of our readers are accessing our journalism on the go - so a great App is as important as our award-winning papers, web and mobile sites," says NZ Herald Editor Murray Kirkness.
